I'm Contributors Editor at TheStreet.com, a business news, market data and stock analysis website. I was Editorial Director of Digital Book World, a website dedicated to covering the world of e-books and digital publishing. I've been a reader since 1986, a journalist since 2005 and an e-reader since 2011. I live and work in New York City.

Another First for Self-Publishing

One of the themes of 2012 has without a doubt been the rise of self-publishing.

We learned earlier in the year at Digital Book World that in 2012, self-publishing took a $100 million bite out of U.S. trade publishing revenues in 2011. Sounds like a lot but isn’t much compared to the nearly $14 billion in revenues the book business made in the U.S. that year. This year, the number is certain to be more.

Today we saw another first for self-publishing. A self-published work was named to the best-books of the year list of the highly respected and ultra-tough book reviewer for the New York Times, Michiko Kakutani.

The book is The Revolution Was Televised: The Cops, Crooks, Slingers and Slayers Who Changed TV Drama Forever by Alan Sepinwall. She called the book “a smart, observant look at 12 ‘great millennial dramas’ — including ‘The Sopranos,’ The Wire,’ ’24,’ ‘Friday Night Lights,’ ‘Mad Men’ and ‘Breaking Bad’ — that transformed the TV landscape and moved the small screen out from under the shadow of the movies.” Unlike in the other nine blurbs, she did not name a publisher.

Self-publishing was once “vanity publishing,” something that you did if you just couldn’t cut it with a traditional publisher. And it certainly wasn’t big business. All that’s changed. Read more here.

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